Topic: Crisis of Trust
Table of Contents
Topic: Crisis of Trust............................................................................................................1
Lecture 1 – Intro to trust and the crisis of trust...................................................................3
Ariely (2015) Trusting the press and political trust: A conditional relationship.............................8
Flew (2019) Digital communication. The crisis of trust and the post-global..................................8
Moreno et al. (2021) Trust in Public relations in the age of mistrusted media: A European
perspective...................................................................................................................................9
Lecture 2 - Trust in news media, potential biases and misinformation..............................10
Van der Meer et al. (2022) Do news media kills? How a biased news reality can overshadow real
societal risks, the case of aviation and road traffic accidents......................................................16
Skovsgaard et al. (2013) A reality check: How journalists’ role perceptions impact their
implementation of the objectivity norm.....................................................................................16
Egelhofer et al. (2019) Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: a framework and research
agenda........................................................................................................................................17
Van der Meer et al. (2023) Can fighting Misinformation have a negative spillover effect? How
warnings for the threat of Misinformation can decreased general news credibility....................17
Lecture 3 - The concept of media trust and journalistic response......................................18
Koliska, & Assmann, K. (2021). Lügenpresse: The lying press and German journalists’ responses
to a stigma..................................................................................................................................21
Fawzi, et al. (2021). Concepts, causes and consequences of trust in news media - a literature
review and framework................................................................................................................22
Hanitzsch, Van Dalen, A., & Steindl, N. (2018). Caught in the Nexus: A Comparative and
Longitudinal Analysis of Public Trust in the Press........................................................................27
Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Schultz, A., Andı, S., & Kleis Nielsen, R. (2022). Reuters institute digital
news report 2022. Reuters..........................................................................................................28
Lecture 4 - Organizations under public scrutiny................................................................30
Du, Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2010). Maximizing Business Returns to Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR): The Role of CSR Communication. International Journal of Management
Reviews : IJMR, 12(1), 8–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00276.x......................36
de Jong, Huluba, G., & Beldad, A. D. (2020). Different Shades of Greenwashing: Consumers’
Reactions to Environmental Lies, Half-Lies, and Organizations Taking Credit for Following Legal
Obligations. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 34(1), 38–76.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651919874105.............................................................................37
Öberseder, Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Gruber, V. (2011). “Why Don’t Consumers Care About CSR?”:
A Qualitative Study Exploring the Role of CSR in Consumption Decisions. Journal of Business
Ethics, 104(4), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0925-7........................................37
, van der Meer, & Jonkman, J. G. F. (2021). Politicization of corporations and their environment:
Corporations’ social license to operate in a polarized and mediatized society. Public Relations
Review, 47(1), 101988–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101988...................................38
Lecture 5 – Internal Communication & Organizational trust.............................................39
Tkalac Verčič, Verčič, D., & Sriramesh, K. (2012). Internal communication: Definition, parameters,
and the future. Public Relations Review, 38(2), 223–230............................................................43
Agarwal. (2013). Investigating the convergent validity of organizational trust. Journal of
Communication Management (London, England), 17(1), 24–39..................................................44
Men, Yue, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2020). “Vision, passion, and care:” The impact of charismatic
executive leadership communication on employee trust and support for organizational change.
Public Relations Review, 46(3)....................................................................................................46
Pološki Vokić, Rimac Bilušić, M., & Najjar, D. (2021). Building organizational trust through
internal communication. Corporate Communications, 26(1), 70–83...........................................47
Lecture 6 - Reputation, Trust, and Crises...........................................................................50
Coombs, T. (2013). Situational Theory of Crisis: Situational Crisis Communication Theory and
Corporate Reputation. In C. E. Carroll (Ed.),................................................................................54
Beldad, van Laar, E., & Hegner, S. M. (2018). Should the shady steal thunder?: The effects of
crisis communication timing, pre-crisis reputation valence, and crisis type on post-crisis
organizational trust and purchase intention...............................................................................56
Mason. (2019). Media Frames and Crisis Events: Understanding the Impact on Corporate
Reputations, Responsibility Attributions, and Negative Affect....................................................56
Zheng, Liu, H., & Davison, R. M. (2018). Exploring the relationship between corporate
reputation and the public’s crisis communication on social media.............................................57
,Lecture 1 – Intro to trust and the crisis
of trust
Course set up
- Dr Toni van der Meer
- In between different
- Discussing
o Society being challenged by distrust on many levels
o Changing media environment
o Public and private organizations under constant scrutiny
o Interplay between organizations, media and the public
- Exam
o 4 open ended essay questions
o Based on lecture discussions AND readings
Introduction to (dis)trust
- Corona protest
o Demonstrates how there is institutional distrust, political/gov trust was no
longer just given. People became more critical
- The problem with trust today is that people don’t trust institutions as much as they
used to. Society is built on trust which is why that is an issue.
- Especially important for elected institutes
- What is trust
o The general sense of well-being in relation to one’s self and towards others
Essential attribute of human character and interpersonal interaction
Feeling secure in expectations of good outcomes in daily life
“the realization of social expectations”
Trust is an interaction imperative (so communicative!)
Greater trust is good for social relationships and for exchange
Reciprocity (= equal exchange) is important
In our globalized world a more generalized interpersonal trust is
necessary
o Are they trusted to do what they are meant to do?
o For organizations to fulfil their roles in the society they need trust
o The importance of trust
Ariely Polcomm focus; argues how important political trust is to
function in society
Trust in institutions and the economy is important
Helpful externality that improves economic processes and exchange in
markets; low trust can lead to deviations like mafia practices
Trust also necessary to built a civil society and a sustainable
democracy (Ariely, 2015)
Trust in institutions dependence upon meeting societal expectations
o Why is trust important?
o Which concepts are related to trust in the context of organizations?
E.g., legitimacy, reputation, ethics, stakeholders
Organizations need to fulfil these expectations
o What do organizations do to gain trust?
, Strategic communication
- Corona
o People had to trust the gov to provide the right conditions to get through it
- Unilever
o Organizations are taking their CSR more seriously, more sustainability trends
from larger organizations
- Edelman 2023 Trust Barometer
o Every year they make this barometer run a survey in several countries and
measure to what extent trust develops which tells us how perceptions of trust
change over time
o Trust in government has been declining. Particularly in western countries
o Trust in business is better than for the government. this puts large
companies (for profit) in a spot open for to fill the gov is creating, but also
raises level of responsibility for them (Lecture 4)
Business is the only trusted institution, business need to help solve
societal problems
State of economy and confidence in economic future important to
trust
Traditional media in NL are the most trusted institute we
should be careful about how people interpret these statistics.
o Ariely (2015)
Understanding trust
Relation between media trust and political trust is well established.
There is general climate where institutions are groups and given a
general evaluation of trust
As a broader evaluation of information environment and instructions
There is a general tendency to trust or distrust, distrust is more
normal than trusting
Media trust is more about credibility, whereas political is about
systematic features
If you trust politics more you are more likely to trust the media thus
people tend to have an overall evaluation of institutes
There are several elements that effect trust
What is the role of the media when we talk about politics?
Media are window through which we understand the world
around us “Given the vital role the media plays in shaping
citizen political assessment”
Basically, you cannot trust democracy if you cannot trust the
media, because you don’t believe you are accurately informed
(task of the media; polcomm)
Different media environments:
What drives the relationship of political trust and media trust?
Media autonomy independent actor in society; watchdog
function, hold those in power accountable
Journalistic professionalism the more they have professional
norms to serve the public, they scrutinise the powerful more
Party/press parallelism media system matches political
system e.g., one tv channel for each party
Findings
Try to explain relationship between media and political trust
